UNTIL THE OFFSPRING WILL COME
Galatians 3:15-22 (ESV). To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your Offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the Offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Teach us by Your Word to listen to Your Law so we repent; but then to stop listening to the Law and only to the Gospel, so we are comforted. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ, the Promised and Blesséd Offspring:
St. Paul speaks here about the two main teachings in the Bible: the Law and the Gospel. On the one hand, understanding Law and Gospel is easy. The Law teaches what we are to do and not to do, what God commands and what He forbids. It’s about what we do. By contrast, the Gospel teaches not what we do, but what God has done, and still does, to save us from our sins. It’s about what God does – especially what Christ has done to redeem us.
But while it seems easy to understand or comprehend what is Law or what is Gospel, it’s also not simple. The reason you get a troubled conscience, or you get stuck in guilt, or can’t be comforted, or have inner turmoil, usually is a Law-Gospel reason. It’s why St. Paul is writing this because it’s not so easy.
St. Paul contrasts “the promise,” which is the Gospel, with “the law.” He does so by clearing up a misconception from Old Testament history in this discussion about “the covenant.” The Galatians had been led astray to think faith alone wasn’t enough, but that they still needed to keep “the covenant.”
A covenant is an agreement between two parties, usually a two-way covenant. This is the covenant God made with Israel in the days of Moses – that He would be their God and they would be His people; His part was to bless them, their part was to obey His commands. This was a conditional covenant, the condition being their obedience. God spoke this at Mt. Sinai before the giving of the Law in the form of the 10 Commandments, when He said: “Now therefore, if you will keep My covenant, then you shall be to Me a special people” (Ex 19:5). Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, the Lord explains their punishment and exile as a result of not keeping the covenant.
The people who convinced these Galatians that it wasn’t enough to have faith in Jesus, but they had to also be faithful in their keeping of God’s Law, were really pushing this idea of a two-way covenant, a conditional way of looking at their Christianity, sort of “God loves me if …”
The Galatians weren’t the only ones who do this. Everyone does this. It’s our nature. It’s the way the Old Adam in us operates, not wanting it to be by faith alone, but wanting credit or praise for keeping faith and doing good. You know the Gospel, that God saves you by grace, through faith alone, but the Law always comes back in. You feel like you haven’t done enough or that you haven’t done it well enough. You feel unworthy. You think God is mad at you because of your sins, or disappointed in you for not being better.
Paul calls this making your justification depend on your doing of the Law. He says: “If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the Law.” This is the danger with thinking of things in terms of having a covenant with God. It always returns you to your works. You take the burden back onto yourself. You live with the burden. Luther said, “This is the highest and greatest empire of the devil in the whole universe, truly the head of the serpent, the snare by which the devil captures all people and holds them captive. For by nature all people think it’s the Law that makes them righteous.”
But St. Paul says this is all wrong. The “covenant” isn’t a two-way covenant at all, but you have to go back much farther than Mt. Sinai, way back 430 years earlier to Abraham. In Genesis 12, and again in Genesis 15, you see God making a “covenant” with Abraham that’s all one-way, from God to man, with no conditions. He tells Abraham, “I will bless you,” and that in “your offspring” all the families on earth – the whole world – “will be blessed.” And now Paul tells us that it isn’t plural offspring, “referring to many, but referring to one, ‘and to your Offspring’ – who is Christ.”
That’s an exclamation point if there ever was one: “who is Christ!” He says that this one word in the Old Testament to knowing who Jesus is. This is a beautiful name for Jesus: He is “the Offspring,” the promised one. So when Paul contrasts the Law with the Gospel, he calls the Gospel the Promise. But he’s not only calling the Gospel the Promise, he says Jesus is the Promise.
This is so beautiful. This personalizes everything. We struggle with our conscience. We struggle to keep Law and Gospel straight. We struggle to let the Gospel win, and we take the burdens of the Law back onto ourselves. It’s right to listen to the Law in its chief and proper use, as it shows you your sins so that you repent. But once you repent, and the Gospel is spoken to you, it’s time to stop listening to the Law and only listen to the Gospel. Once the Gospel is spoken to you – the forgiveness of your sins – it’s the time to stop thinking about all that you have to do. Our problem is that you hear the Gospel, but the voice of the Law keeps coming back in to beat you up like that man in today’s gospel lesson, and you keep listening to you it, getting beaten up more and more. Listen to what Luther says about this:
“It takes work and labor for someone who’s been terrified and bruised by the Law to raise himself up and say: ‘Now I have been crushed and troubled enough. The Law has caused me enough misery. Now it is time for grace and listening to Christ.’ The foolishness of the human heart is so great that in this conflict of conscience, after the Law performs its proper function, the heart not only does not take hold of grace, but it actually looks for more laws.”
So how does a person hold onto the Gospel and stop letting the Law beat you up? This again is a one-way deal. It’s not by your doing, only by God’s. It’s so helpful that here Paul does not give it to us in an impersonal way and just call it “the Gospel,” as in a message. But he calls it “the Promise,” and says that Christ Jesus Himself is the Promise. He’s the Promise, come in human flesh. In fact – and this is more beautiful and personal – He’s “the Offspring,” the promised Offspring, the “Blesséd Offspring.”
St. Paul says the Law has a place. The Law isn’t bad. It’s good; it states God’s will. But its place is only to show our sins so that we repent; it prepares us for the Gospel, which shows us our Savior. But we should think of it in this personal way: it prepares us not just for the message of the Gospel, but for the Gospel in the flesh, the Promise, the Offspring. Paul says the Law “was added because of transgressions, until the Offspring should come.” There it is: troubled by your sins, you look for “the Offspring, who is Christ, to come!”
The way we read at first, we understand this is speaking of Christ coming down from heaven, being born of the virgin. He is the promised “Seed of the woman,” the promised Offspring, first promised to Eve in her great sadness and shame after the Fall, the Offspring who would crush the serpent’s head.
The entire history leading up to Jesus’ birth is a waiting for the promised Offspring. Then He came, and He conquered every temptation by the devil, and went to the cross carrying all the sin of the world; His flesh was pierced and died and was buried; but on the third day He rose victorious over the devil, sin, and death. How great to see how He who “is the Offspring,” the Promise, did come and win salvation for all. In Him, the promised Offspring of Abraham, all the families of the earth are blessed. He died and rose for all!
But the next way we read this is to understand this coming didn’t only take place 2,000 years ago. But He comes to you! He is still the Offspring in your case, now not just born of mother Mary, but born in you, in your heart. His womb in which He is being carried, waiting to come forth and be greeted by you, what carries Him to you so He can be born in you, is His Word, and also His Sacrament. Faith is how you receive the Blessing that He is for you.
This phrase, “until the Offspring will come,” is your lifeline. During the week, life beats you down. Really, it’s the Law: the constant inner pressure and emphasis on performance, on doing everything right, failing to measure up, having regret over the good you fail to do, like the priest and Levite, and over the sins you commit and how you hurt others. The Law keeps accusing you, even though you know the Gospel. What are you waiting for? – For the Blessed Offspring, your Jesus, the true Good Samaritan, to come. He comes. Here. Each Sunday. To you. In His Word. In the absolution. In His Supper.
Luther says you must say, “Stop, Law! – It is time for the Blesséd Offspring,” Jesus, “who does not accuse and terrify but speaks better things than the Law – grace, peace, forgiveness of sins, and victory over sin and death.” Because we’re weak and helpless, Jesus Himself comes in His Word and in His Supper. He says: “Stop, Law! Stop terrorizing this child of Mine. It’s time for the Blessed Offspring, I Myself, to bring grace and peace to this My child, to forgive all his/her sins, to heal their wounds and place them at My side before the Father, spotless.”
As sin and shame beat you up during the week, you are waiting for the Lord’s Day when your Jesus, the Blesséd Offspring, is coming for your healing. In Him you know God is not mad at you but pleased with you for Jesus’ sake.
Lord Jesus, think on me,
Amid the battle’s strife;
In all my pain and misery
Be Thou my Health and Life. (ELH 496:3) Amen!